One of my favourite books
"An Island to Oneself" by Tom Neale
The Story of Six Years On A Desert Island

Tom Neale (1902-1977) did what we all now and then dream of doing - go
and live alone on a desert island. For years he planned,
read, talked - until the great day when he was landed on his
little kingdom, undismayed by the fact that he would have
to struggle with the full strength of body and mind to
survive. This is how he starts his story:

"I was fifty when I went to live alone on Suvarov, after
thirty years of roaming the Pacific, and in this story I
will try to describe my feelings, try to put into words
what was, for me, the most remarkable and worthwhile
experience of my whole life.
I chose to live in the Pacific Islands because life there
moves at the sort of pace which you feel God must have had
in mind originally when He made the sun to keep us warm
and provided the fruits of the earth for the taking ... "Continue to read the online book

This book has become a South Seas classic and although Tom Neale is long
gone - he died in 1977 and is buried in the cemetery opposite Rarotonga's
airport - his memory lives on. Many Rarotongan residents
have anecdotes or opinions of him and it seems that his
book, which was ghost written, makes him out to
be a much more reasonable fellow than he actually was. One
person's opinion was that he was so cantankerous that an
uninhabited island was the only place for him!

Thanks to Tom, the atoll is now one of the best known in the
whole Cook Islands and yachties often call in to look in on
Tom's room which is still furnished just as it was when he
lived there. Today the island is populated only by a caretaker
and his family.

Here are some comments by book reviewers:

"This endlessly fascinating book is Tom Neale's story of his life
alone on Suvarov, a dream-life which he made come true. Apart from
the sheer joy and drive of the narrative, it is absolutely required
reading for the thousands who fancy doing the same. It is one of
those books which is quite capable of leaving a mark on you for life."
(THE BOOKMAN)

"Beautifully written ... moving, entertaining and exciting. Tom
Neale is not a crank, a mystic, a hermit or slightly barmy. He just
wanted to get the hell out, to have the satisfaction of fending for
himself and proving he could do it. And, by God, he did. In every
sense Mr. Neale is a man." (WOODROW WYATT, EVENING STANDARD)